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RandomMaccess will be covering the Apple iPhone announcement as it happens. Check back here starting at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern Time. And look for RandomMaccess Publisher Chuck La Tournous on a special MacJury session reviewing and analyzing the announcements.

The one-year anniversary of the iPad (I discussed it on a MacJury panel this week) and an episode of Shawn King’s Your Mac Life brought to mind a piece I wrote in 2004 to discuss the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh. Although the article is now seven years old, I think the analysis is still relevant, with one caveat: I think Steve Jobs’ well-publicized health issues have given him a greater fondness for past achievements. I’m not saying he’s now content to rest on his laurels — far from it — but I do think he’s got a greater fondness for acknowledging (albeit it not reflecting) the past. Maybe it’s all just a matter of perspective.

By Chuck La Tournous | First published January 24, 2004

Yes, this column is about Apple and the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh, but I promise it won’t be another of those walks down memory lane, where we talk about how Apple had it all only to bungle its way into irrelevance against the mighty onslaught of Microsoft. Sheesh. There are enough Monday-morning quarterbacks opining Apple’s “should-woulda-couldas” to fill a football stadium.

In fact, I think that’s one of the reasons Apple itself has kept so low-key about its milestone. How does the company talk about its history without touching on those issues? For those only following the Mac since Steve Jobs returned to Apple’s helm, it’s easy to forget that Apple had its Dark Ages — and some pretty pitch-black ones at that. And even if the company were to dance its way around issues of licensing and shrinking market share and a zillion and one different models of Performas and spin it into a lovely little fairy tale — that’s just not Steve Jobs.

Jobs has always struck me as someone who looks forward, not back. He plots his course by seeing what’s ahead, not lingering on what he’s done. Even the nod to the past in his keynote was more of a statement of where the company is now than where it was then. Jobs played the famous “1984” commercial, which aired as a paid spot just once — during the 1984 Superbowl. But in this rendition, the freespirited revolutionary heroine rushes past the legions of listless masses ready to shatter the status quo — wearing an iPod. The spot is no longer about the original Macintosh, but about Apple and what it represents today.

So what does Apple represent today? It’s a big question, and certainly a bigger one that can be fully answered here. Jobs has given the “sound bite” answer himself; he want the Macintosh to be the hub of your “digital lifestyle.” When he first said that, it seemed a pretty vague statement, but what Apple’s done since then has made it a lot clearer. The Mac, then, is more than a just a traditional computer. It’s not just the place to bang away on your word processor, plan your family budget and let your kids play a game or two. As heretical as this may sound, the Mac isn’t the best way to do any of those things. You can write letters and spreadsheets on a cheap PC just as well as on a Mac, and with the money you save, you can buy a console system that will do a much better job of playing games than a PC or a Mac.

But think beyond those traditional computing tasks, and imagine what someone on Star Trek would do with a sort of computerized assistant. “Computer — display the pictures of Alex and James’ baseball games; put them in an email addressed to grandma.” iPhoto. “Computer, take the movies of Nicole’s birthday party. Delete the part where the neighbor kid picks his nose. Add some nice music from my selection of songs from the 1950s. Assemble the movie and put it on a disc so I can send it to Aunt Patty in Florida to watch on her TV.” iMovie & iDVD. “Computer — play a random selection of my top-rated songs — but no slow ones. And don’t play anything by The Beatles — I’ve been listening to them a lot lately.” iTunes. “Computer — My friend David has a new email address. I’ve changed it in my Address Book, but make sure my work computer, cell phone, PDA and iPod are all updated with the new information.” iSync.

I could go on and on. My daughter asked me once, (OK, more than once) why I spend so much time on the computer. I told her that I was actually doing a lot of different things — it just so happened that now, most of them can be done better and faster on the computer. I might be reading the news on the Internet; downloading photos from my camera and printing or sharing them with family and friends; scanning and restoring photos of family members who lived a hundred or more years ago; helping her do research for her homework; making a movie of the apple-picking trip we just took; chatting with a friend who lives in California; or writing a song for her mom. A lot of these are things I couldn’t have done a few years ago; some are things that would’ve taken me much longer or been so hard I might not have tried them.

The image of the woman in the 1984 ad remains a potent and fitting symbol for Apple and the Mac. Because distilled down to one word, the Macintosh is about revolution. It’s what the old slogan “the computer for the rest of us” really means. None of what the Mac allows us to do is impossible without the Mac. But it is beyond the reach of most of us, reserved for the rich or very gifted. The revolution is that these abilities are now in the hands of us — the masses. The revolution that started with the power to create professional-looking documents and spreadsheets continues to this day in GarageBand, which lets the most tone-deaf among us make “real” music. And in between, we’ve been given other tools to do what was once, if not impossible, then highly impractical.

I, for one, am glad Apple’s not devoting a whole lot of its time and energy looking at the past. I’d much rather they keep working on bringing me the future.

It’s that time of year again, but with some interesting differences. Last year’s Macworld Conference & Expo proved IDG could host a successful show without Apple’s presence; this year we’ll see if exhibitors and attendees got the word. This year’s conference also makes a break with the past by using a new venue — or more accurately — leaving an old one. The entire show — including conferences, feature presentations and exhibit hall — will be held within Moscone West with no elements of the show using the familiar North and South halls.

I’ll be at the show as usual. For those interested in catching up with me, here are your best shots:

I’ll be appearing in the Macworld All-Star Band at Cirque du Mac 8.0. The time and location are undisclosed and the event is strictly invitation only, but if you’re nice to me, I may have an extra ticket or two.

On Friday, January 28th, I’ll be participating in a panel called “Parenting in the Digital Age,” hosted by Chuck Joiner. It will be held in Macworld LIVE stage at noon. In addition (and perhaps contrast) to me, the panel will include smart folks like Tonya Engst, Omaha Sternberg and Christopher Breen.

Chances are excellent that I’ll also be Tweeting about interesting sessions, discoveries and sessions, so if you’re at the show, follow me at twitter.com/RandomMaccess. And if you see me, please make a point of saying hello. It’s the opportunity for real-world, face-to-face interaction that makes Macworld such an important aspect of the Mac (and technology) community.

I took part in the latest MacJury podcast, where we discussed the announcements made at Apple’s September Music Event. I joined Host Chuck Joiner and panelists Dave Hamilton, Don McAllister and Omaha Sternberg to give our thoughts on the slew of product updates ranging from new iPod shuffles, nanos and touches; iTunes 10; iOS 4.1 (and beyond); the updated AppleTV and more—even the marketing strategy behind Apple’s return to live streaming of events.

I like the MacJury whether I’m on the panel or not. I’ve said it before, but Chuck does a great job of bringing together people with interesting points of view and importantly, objectivity. MacJury also provides enough time to delve beneath the surface on issues and get into the details—this is not just a bullet-point listing of what was said, but an exploration of how we got here and what it might mean for the future.

The show can be downloaded for free from iTunes or you can listen directly from the MacJury website. It’s a smart group of people and I’m happy to be asked to participate so often.

I got to meet my fellow MacJurors face-to-face at Macworld San Francisco 2010 for a live version of the MacJury podcast. Host Chuck Joiner and our panel recorded the session live on the floor of the Moscone Center — in the Music Theater stage, to be more specific — in front of a live audience. The panel consisted of Tanya Engst, from TidBITS and TakeControl Books, Ted Landau from Macworld and The Mac Observer, Jeff Gamet from The Mac Observer and the Design Weekly Podcast and yours truly. The audience was super, the conversation lively and it was a typically fun session. Thanks to all who attended and for Chuck for putting it together. The session — in all its video glory — is now available on the MacVoices.tv website.

I also spoke at the Conference, delivering a session called on keyboard shortcuts called “Look Ma, No Mouse!” If you attended the conference, you already know where to find the slides. IDG, the show’s organizer, will be sending out more information on that soon as well.

On the show floor, I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in MacJury Live – a session of Chuck Joiner’s excellent podcast done in front of a live audience. It was great fun talking about the show with Chuck and fellow jurors Jeff Gamet, Tanya Engst and Ted Landau — some of the smartest people in the Mac community. As soon as the show is posted (in video, no less!) I’ll put a link to it here.

Between the Mac Observer article and the MacJury podcast, I’ve said pretty much all I have to say on the topic, other than to reiterate that it was a great show, ironically made perhaps even better by Apple’s absence.

At New Media Expo in Las Vegas last month, I joined Chuck Joiner for a discussion of Social Media and its implications for corporations. We discussed whether or not corporations “get” Tweeting, blogging and other aspects of Social Media and whether it’s too late for those who don’t. As always, it was a lively and (I hope) interesting conversation. My apologies in advance for the fact that it’s a video interview.

On a recent MacJury, during a discussion on the new ability for iPhone applications to send “push” notifications, I joked about a Twitter client with that capability and what a nightmare it would be. We all had a good laugh at the ridiculousness of the suggestion and moved on to more serious topics.

I was surprised then to hear about Twitbit, a new Twitter client for the iPhone that features — you guessed it — push notifications. I’m struggling to comprehend the benefit of this. Unless you’re following very few people (and if you are I’d argue you’re not a good candidate for a for-pay Twitter client for the iPhone) it seems like the near-constant notifications of new Tweets would quickly drive you crazy — not to mention kill your battery.

Twitbit’s developers say the app will be configurable in future versions, so you can turn notification off for regular Tweets, but on for Direct Messages. Since you can already set that to happen via email, I still don’t see a big benefit. It will be interesting to see how Twitbit does (or evolves).

Had I known my predictions carried such power, I surely would have gone with something other than a Twitter client with push notifications.

Twitbit is available in the iTunes store for $4.99. More information is available on the app’s website.

I’ve appeared on Shawn King’s excellent “Your Mac Life” podcast several times over the last few weeks, but have neglected to mention it here. So before I forget again: I’m on tonight’s show, in a pre-recorded segment called “Pick Your Topic.” It’s a clever idea: Shawn presents three current Mac or Apple-related stories in the news, and the guest picks one of them to talk about. It’s also a little unnerving; the guest is not told what the choices will be, so he or she can’t prepare in advance. “Winging it” like this is way outside my comfort zone, but it makes it all the more exciting and I usually wind up really enjoying these segments.

Another Your Mac Life development I meant to talk about but didn’t: YML is now available from iTunes as a free podcast. Previously, you could either listen to (or watch) the show live or stream the previous week’s show from the yourmaclifeshow.com website. If you wanted to listen to it on the go, you had to subscribe to the show via Audible.com. I’ve been pushing for the show to go the free podcast route for a while now, so I’m tremendously glad to see it happen. I think it will open the show up to a much bigger audience–one it richly deserves. Shawn has been broadcasting Your Mac Life (and its predecessor, The Mac Show) for years now–way before the word “podcasting” was even coined. He is, in my view, the Johnny Carson of tech broadcasting and a genuine pro in the medium.

So–what was my topic for tonight’s show? You’ll have to tune in to find out: the show runs from 8:30-11:00 p.m. and is available from the show’s website.

I took part in another session of The MacJury, Chuck Joiner’s excellent panel-based podcast. This time out, we talked about our favorite tips, features and accessories for the iPhone — particularly for the new iPhone 3GS and 3.0 software. These are always lots of fun to do, and entertaining to listen to (I hope.) On this session were Steve Sande from The Unauthorized Apple Weblog, Pat Fauquet of MacMouseCalls, author Tom Negrino and my Mac Observer compatriot Jeff Gamet. If you’re a reader of this site, I hope you’re also a subscriber to this podcast — it’s always a good discussion, whether I’m a participant or not.